Monday, September 10, 2012

Ohio Secretary Of State Forced To Back Down Over Early Voting Hours


It hasn't even been a month since Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted tried to make it, if not difficult, darn near impossible, for voters in Democratic Counties in Ohio to be able to vote [see post HERE]. You know because they'd be voting for Obama and anything the GOP can do to stop that, legal or illegal, right or wrong, they'll do it.

But just last week Husted, a Republican wouldn't you know, reversed course on his decision to block county boards of elections from setting their own early voting hours in the days leading up to the November election.

Last month, Husted, and Ohio Republicans, hoped to to limit early voting hours in Democratic counties, including those with major cities like Columbus and Cleveland, while expanding early voting in Republican counties. 

Fair, eh? The Republicans can vote whenever and wherever they want while the Democrats are limited. Yeah, the American way, alive and well under the GOP in Ohio.

Suddenly people got pissed off, and began to demand that this plan be stopped, so Husted tried to change his mind and restrict voting hours everywhere in Ohio. But then a federal court told him he couldn't do that, and Jon Husted stomped and fumed and refused to comply. He said that expanding voting hours would "confuse voters" because, you know, telling time is hard, I guess. 

He used something called Directive 2012-40, which said Husted would “prohibit county boards of elections from determining hours for the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday before the election.”

Well, one judge, Peter Economus ordered Husted to appear before him in a hearing based on his actions, and Jon Husted blinked. He stepped back; he stopped being a hypocritical dick. His office released a tersely worded message, “Directive 2012-40 is hereby rescinded.” 

As a result, county boards of elections will now be allowed to set their own hours.

Snap.

7 comments:

  1. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a soulless political operative who is trying to prevent minorities from voting. Husted and all the other Republicans who are trying to restrict minority voting have no shame. They probably consider themselves good church going folks when in fact they're nothing but a bunch of criminals.

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  2. Okay, it's still confusing to outsiders.

    In two days time we have elections, most of the country is in one time zone, the other part is 6 hours away [later/earlier depends on perspective]. The government sets the time, early voting starts @ 7am till closing time 8 pm, and it doesn't matter in which part of the country you are.

    Every citizen over 18 with the Dutch nationality gets a voting pass, no registration needed. And we can choose from 22 parties! Maybe not the most economic but it works for us. To rule a country is to compromise.

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  3. Someone on the news said it is all over except for Ohio, Florida and Virginia.

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  4. @The Dog's Mother

    Oh I hope you're right!

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  5. He was basically told to have a seat

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  6. Anonymous4:11 PM

    This is precisely how checks and balances are supposed to work. A politician cannot arbitrarily decide to change election rules without expecting judicial review.

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  7. When a Federal Judge orders you to appear before the bench, you are in deep, hot shit. It isn't usually done, the court simply orders the directive. But in the case the judge wanted Husted in front of him in an act of righteous subjugation

    As I said in another comment, Husted is among the more reasonable Republicans running the state. That said, this embarrassing situation AND the one regarding is "official residence" (he officially lives in suburban Dayton in a house where he pays his water bill; he actually lives in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington where his wife *owns* the house that he really lives in) really shows how its OK for HIM to work the system, all others be damned.

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